Inside an auto theft sting

For months the undercover operation has been successful. The cops have bought 33 stolen cars at the warehouse from 24 suspects. 

It’s quite a haul. But could it be the sting is causing more crimes than usual? The police say no.

Lt. Victor Rodriguez: We’re catching criminals and not creating criminals.  We’re dealing with people that have criminal histories of stealing cars, robbing people, the whole gamut.

Victoria Corderi, Dateline correspondent: That this is what they’re doing anyway?

Lt. Rodriguez: Exactly.

During the sting, one of the thieves swiped one man’s car.

Dixon, victim: I came back outside and the car was gone.

Another carjacked another man’s Mustang:

Simone: I was more or less, “Just take my car and go.”

And another shot this man when he fought back.

Violent carjackers with the gun cannot remain on the street, police say, so even if it jeopardizes the sting, they decide to make a move.

They arrest him as he is driving a stolen car he intends to sell. His case is pending.

And they arrest another admitted carjacker too.

Corderi: You just felt you had to.

Tio, undercover police: Right.

Corderi: So two carjackers are in jail. How do you know that they’re not piecing things together for the other guys who are still out on the street?

Tio: We don’t know.

Corderi: So, they could be exposing you.

Tio: They could.  But there’s nothing we can do about that.

So even though they’ve begun making arrests, the police still have to keep the sting going, hoping that the jailed carjackers won’t catch on. It’s a new, higher level of risk for the undercover officers.

During that time, they decide they have to arrest Grenias too - you remember him, he’s the most frequent warehouse visitor. They want to stop him before he hurts someone.

Little does "Grenias" know while he’s selling the stolen truck, police are waiting to arrest him after he leaves on a charge unrelated to the sting. His case is still pending.

Corderi: At what point do you say, “enough is enough?”  Time to pull the plug on this...

Tio: When we feel like we’ve got about as much as we’re gonna be able to get.

And after five months working the sting, the cops have dozens of stolen cars, cocaine, mountains of incriminating videotape and a few preliminary arrests out of the way... now they decide it’s time for the big roundup.

In order not to expose the cops involved in the fencing operation yet still get these suspects off the street the police create a sting within a sting.

Here’s how it’ll work: Undercover cops again invite the warehouse suspects to that club where they like to hang out and party. It turns out the club Hottyz has been suspected of prostitution. So a separate unit of vice squad cops will raid the place and arrest them and everyone else in a dragnet.

The thieves will never guess these arrests have anything to do with the cars they stole.

Corderi: Sort of a surprise party.

Lt. Rodriguez: Surprise party, right. That would give us an extra day to be able to go out and—and catch those stragglers that didn’t make it to the club. Best case scenario: All these crooks come, they stay in the club and we’re ready to go and we pop ‘em.

There to “pop em” is an army of about 60 police either inside the club or in the neighborhood, ready for anything.

Dateline is along for the ride with hidden cameras, posing as friends of the undercover cops.

As we enter the club, a newly-hired security guard searches our producer’s purse, which is full of hidden camera gear. It’s a tense moment.

The cops stand by anxiously, but the cameras go undiscovered...

We sit near the dance floor and wait. Meanwhile surveillance teams set up outside the club.  But there’s a hitch—something’s wrong. The sting within the sting isn’t working.  There’s no steady stream of gangbangers arriving to party.

One man did show up at the club with a stolen truck to sell. But the undercover cops send him away because he’s not one of the suspects. What he doesn’t know is while he was inside, police outside put a spike under the tire of the stolen truck

Watching the thief drive off on a leaking tire provides a moment of comic relief...

But it’s no laughing matter when police see the thief stop at a gas station - the perfect time to take him down.

Despite that, this highly orchestrated bust is, well, a bust.  The cops waited three hours for the suspects.

Corderi: What was going through your mind during those hours that the door would open and no one was coming?

Tio: Well I couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong.

Not one warehouse suspect showed.

Tio: We didn’t know how, but—these people somehow had been alerted.

Corderi: Are you thinking that three months of my life spent on this, living this life and this is all going south?

Tio: Yes.

There’s confusion as the police meet up in the parking lot. What happened?  Did the main informant  betray the operation to save his hide?  Did the word get out?

The undercover cops are about to find out.

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